In one case a budy of mine picked up several houses at once and ended up making regular payments to the sellers estate...it was a terrific deal all around.You can probably find an agent or two that will at least complete the periodic search of the MLS for you and let you compare whats out there...of course by then there are agents involved (commissions to be paid), and every investor and regular buyer in town can see the offer....so like you already mentioned some of the opportunity has eroded.

Is he is looking to just supply capital and see a guaranteed % return after a certain time period?  

It will have commercial terms, such as shorter amortization periods, balloons, ARMs and such.

So unless you keep a property for a long period of time, and never refi, you won't see tremendous principle reduction.

Do you think 2/1 and 2/2 could be good rental properties or should I plan for a longer holding period? 

The unopened envelope would then be stored in the tenants file as evidence that I made the legally required effort to notify them of the status of their security deposit within the time period required for my state.Revenge may lead to "bad karma" (whatever that is supposed to be) but sometimes that's all a landlord has when a tenant packs up and moves out without notice.

I guess the safest way is to keep a clear break between renting and buying during the contract period.

Id put the property under an LOI and try to negotiate a 45-60 day study period to do due diligence and locate a retail tenant.

If you are in total fear that someone else will scoop it up put in an Letter of Intent (LOI) for the asking price and make sure you have a 30 day inspection period. 

I want to buy an investment property during my separation period before Divorce.